The Political Sciences Routledge Library Editions: Political Science vol 46: General Principles of Selection in Social Science and History [Hardcover]

Social science is a social activity as well as a method of discovery. The researchers values and politics colour their work and so do their choices of scientific method. This book is about both  the technical effects of values and the political effects of technique. The author reports what social scientists and historians actually do. He sorts out the scientific from the political content in a wide range of old and new work in history, sociology, political science and economics. The overall work is a detailed political and technical criticism of the scientistic programme which would have researchers select for such qualities as objectivity, uniformity, and generality, cumulation and professional unanimity.

Part 1: Use  1. Why Men Act  2.  For example: Why did Chamberlain change his Mind?  3. Why Histories Happen  4. For example:What caused Imperialism?  5. A Model of Moralizing Science  Part 2: Truth  6. Scientific Selection of Causes  7. Scientific Knowledge of Causes  8. Understanding  9. The Imagination of Effects  Part 3: Truth in Use  10. Social Cohesion, Conflict and Change  11.Political Economy  12. Values in Practice and Theory  13. A Summary of Themes  14. A Political Science of Society

Social science is a social activity as well as a method of discovery. The researchers values and politics colour their work and so do their choices of scientific method. This book is about both  the technical effects of values and the political effects of technique. The author reports what social scientists and historians actually do. He sorts out the scientific from the political content in a wide range of old and new work in history, sociology, polil³³